Cell culture process

ABSTRACT

A glycoprotein is produced by a process comprising culturing mammalian host cells expressing nucleic acid encoding a glycoprotein in the presence of (a) a factor that modifies growth state in a cell culture, (b) a divalent metal cation that can adopt and prefers an octahedral coordination geometry, and/or (c) a plasma component. In this process, the occupancy of an N-linked glycosylation site occupied only in a fraction of a glycoprotein is enhanced. Such culturing is preferably carried out at a temperature of between about 30° C. and 35° C. and/or in the presence of up to about 2 mM of a butyrate salt and/or in the presence of a cell-cycle inhibitor.

This is a divisional application claiming priority to application Ser.No. 09/553,924, filed Apr. 21, 2000, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application Serial No. 60/131,076, filed Apr. 26, 1999, theentire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns a process for the production ofglycoproteins in mammalian cell culture. More specifically, theinvention provides a process for producing glycoproteins in mammaliancells that results in enhanced occupancy of an N-linked glycosylationsite occupied only in a fraction of a glycoprotein. A process forincreasing the fraction of Type I tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) ina mammalian cell culture is specifically disclosed.

2. Description of Related Disclosures and Technology

Glycoproteins

Glycoproteins, many of which have been produced by techniques ofrecombinant DNA technology, are of great importance as diagnostic andtherapeutic agents. In a eukaryotic cell environment, glycosylation isattached to a secreted or membrane-spanning protein by co- andpost-translational modification. Proteins destined for the cell surfaceare first co-translationally translocated into the lumen of theendoplasmic reticulum (ER) mediated by a signal sequence at or near theamino terminus of the nascent chain. Inside the ER, the signal sequenceis usually removed and a high-mannose core oligosaccharide unit isattached to the asparagine (N) residue(s) present as part of thesequence Asn-X-Ser/Thr, where X is any amino acid except, perhaps,proline.

The efficiency of this co-translational glycosylation step is dependenton the presentation of an appropriate conformation of the peptide chainas it enters the endoplasmic reticulum (Imperiali and O'Connor, Pure &Applied Chem., 70: 33-40 (1998)). Potential N-linked glycosylation sitesmay no longer be accessible after the protein has folded (Kornfeld &Kornfeld, Ann Rev. Biochem. 54:631-664 (1985)). Proteins next move fromthe ER to the Golgi apparatus where further modifications, such assulfation and processing of the high-mannose oligosaccharide chain to acomplex-type oligosaccharide, occur and the proteins are directed totheir proper destinations.

N-linked oligosaccharides can have a profound impact on thepharmaceutical properties of glycoprotein therapeutics (e.g., in vivohalf-life and bioactivity). Different bioprocess parameters (e.g.,bioreactor type, pH, media composition, and ammonia) have been shown toaffect protein glycosylation significantly. Changes in terminalglycosylation (sialylation and galactosylation) and N-glycan branchingare the most frequently observed alterations.

The Carbohydrate Structure of Tissue Plasminogen Activator

Tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), a glycoprotein, is a multidomainserine protease whose physiological role is to convert plasminogen toplasmin, and thus to initiate or accelerate the process of fibrinolysis.Initial clinical interest in t-PA was raised because of its relativelyhigh activity in the presence, as compared to the absence, of fibrin.Wild-type t-PA is a poor enzyme in the absence of fibrin, but thepresence of fibrin strikingly enhances its ability to activateplasminogen. Recombinant human t-PA is used therapeutically as afibrinolytic agent in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction andpulmonary embolism, both conditions usually resulting from anobstruction of a blood vessel by a fibrin-containing thrombus.

In addition to its striking fibrin specificity, t-PA exhibits severalfurther distinguishing characteristics:

(a) T-PA differs from most serine proteases in that the single-chainform of the molecule has appreciable enzymatic activity. Toward somesmall substrates, and toward plasminogen in the absence of fibrin,two-chain t-PA has greater activity than one-chain t-PA. In the presenceof fibrin, however, the two forms of t-PA are equally active (Rijken etal., J. Biol. Chem., 257: 2920-2925 (1982); Lijnen et al., Thromb.Haemost., 64: 61-68 (1990); Bennett et al., J. Biol. Chem.,266:5191-5201 (1991)). Most other serine proteases exist as zymogens andrequire proteolytic cleavage to a two-chain form to release fullenzymatic activity.

(b) The action of t-PA in vivo and in vitro can be inhibited by aserpin, PAI-1 (Vaughan et al., J. Clin. Invest., 84: 586-591 (1989);Wiman et al., J. Biol. Chem., 259: 3644-3647 (1984)).

(c) T-PA binds to fibrin in vitro with a K_(d) in the μM range.

(d) T-PA has a rapid in vivo clearance that is mediated by one or morereceptors in the liver (Nilsson et al., Thromb. Res., 39: 511-521(1985); Bugelski et al., Throm. Res., 53: 287-303 (1989); Morton et al.,J. Biol. Chem., 264: 7228-7235 (1989)).

A substantially pure form of t-PA was first produced from a naturalsource and tested for in vivo activity by Collen et al., U.S. Pat. No.4,752,603 issued Jun. 21, 1988 (see also Rijken et al., J. Biol. Chem.,256: 7035 (1981)). Pennica et al. (Nature, 301: 214 (1983)) determinedthe DNA sequence oft-PA and deduced the amino acid sequence from thisDNA sequence (U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,075 issued Aug. 23, 1988).

Human wild-type t-PA has potential N-linked glycosylation sites at aminoacid positions 117, 184, 218, and 448. Recombinant human t-PA (ACTIVASE®t-PA) produced by expression in CHO cells was reported to containapproximately 7% by weight of carbohydrate, consisting of a high-mannoseoligosaccharide at position 117, and complex oligosaccharides at Asn-184and Asn-448 (Vehar et al., “Characterization Studies of Human TissuePlasminogen Activator produced by Recombinant DNA Technology,” ColdSpring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, LI:551-562 (1986)).

Position 218 has not been found to be glycosylated in native t-PA orrecombinant wild-type t-PA. Sites 117 and 448 appear always to beglycosylated, while site 184 is thought to be glycosylated only in afraction of the molecules. The t-PA molecules that are glycosylated atposition 184 are termed Type I t-PA, and the molecules that are notglycosylated at position 184 are termed Type II t-PA. Inmelanoma-derived t-PA, the ratio of Type I to Type II t-PA is about 1:1.The most comprehensive analysis of the carbohydrate structures of CHOcell-derived human t-PA was carried out by Spellman et al., J. Biol.Chem., 264: 14100-14111 (1989), who showed that at least 17 differentAsn-linked carbohydrate structures could be detected on the protein.These ranged from the high-mannose structures at position 117 to di-,tri-, and tetra-antennary N-acetyllactosamine-type structures atpositions 184 and 448. Type I and Type II t-PAs were reported to beN-glycosylated in an identical way at Asn-117 and Asn-448 positions,when isolated from the same cell line. For further details, see alsoParekh et al., Biochemistry, 28: 7644-7662 (1989). The specificfibrinolytic activity of Type II t-PA has been shown to be about 50%greater than that of Type I t-PA (Einarsson et al., Biochim. Biophys.Acta,830: 1-10 (1985)). Further, increased Type I is correlated withincreased half-life (Cole et al., Fibrinolysis, 7: 15-22 (1993)).However, Type II t-PA, which lacks a portion of carbohydrate associatedwith Type I t-PA, as well as desialated t-PA, demonstrated a longer T½beta than standard t-PA (Beebe and Aronson, Thromb. Res. 51: 11-22(1988)).

Analysis of the sequence of t-PA has identified the molecule as havingfive domains. Each domain has been defined with reference to homologousstructural or functional regions in other proteins such as trypsin,chymotrypsin, plasminogen, prothrombin, fibronectin, and epidermalgrowth factor (EGF). These domains have been designated, starting at theN-terminus of the amino acid sequence of t-PA, as the finger (F) domainfrom amino acid 1 to about amino acid 44, the growth factor (G) domainfrom about amino acid 45 to about amino acid 91 (based on homology withEGF), the kringle-1 (K1) domain from about amino acid 92 to about aminoacid 173, the kringle-2 (K2) domain from about amino acid 180 to aboutamino acid 261, and the serine protease (P) domain from about amino acid264 to the carboxyl terminus at amino acid 527. These domains aresituated essentially adjacent to each other, and are connected by short“linker” regions. These linker regions bring the total number of aminoacids of the mature polypeptide to 527, although three additionalresidues (Gly-Ala-Arg) are occasionally found at the amino terminus.This additional tripeptide is generally thought to be the result ofincomplete precursor processing, and it is not known to impartfunctionality. Native t-PA can be cleaved between position 275 andposition 276 (located in the serine protease domain) to generate thetwo-chain form of the molecule.

Each domain contributes in a different way to the overall biologicallysignificant properties of the t-PA molecule. Domain deletion studiesshow that the loss of the finger, growth factor, or kringle-2 domainresults in a lower-affinity binding of the variant t-PA to fibrin (vanZonneveld et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83: 4670-4674 (1986);Verheijen et al., EMBO J., 5: 3525-3530 (1986)); however, more recentresults obtained with substitution mutants indicate that the kringle-2domain is less involved in fibrin binding than earlier expected (Bennettet al., supra). The domain deletion studies have implicated the fingerand growth factor domains in clearance by the liver (Collen et al.,Blood, 71: 216-219 (1988); Kalyan et al., J. Biol. Chem., 263: 3971-3978(1988); Fu et al., Thromb. Res., 50: 33-41 (1988); Refino et al.,Fibrinolysis, 2: 30 (1988); Larsen et al., Blood, 73: 1842-1850 (1989);Browne et al., J. Biol. Chem., 263: 1599-1602 (1988)). The kringle-2domain is responsible for binding to lysine. The serine protease domainis responsible for the enzymatic activity of t-PA and contains specificregions where mutations were shown to affect both fibrin binding andfibrin specificity (possibly direct interactions with fibrin), and otherregions where only fibrin specificity is altered (possibly indirectinteractions with fibrin) (Bennett et al., supra). Studies with mutantsresulting from site-directed alterations indicate the involvement of theglycosylation of t-PA in clearance (Lau et al., Bio/Technology, 5:953-958 (1987); Lau et al., Bio/Technology, 6: 734 (1988)).

An unglycosylated variant of t-PA consisting of the kringle-2 andprotease domains was described to have a slower plasma clearance thanwild-type t-PA (Martin et al., Fibrinolysis, 4:(Suppl.3):9 (Abstract 26)(1990)). The effects of altering oligosaccharide structures at sites 164and 448 of t-PA were also examined by Howard et al., Glycobiology, 1:411-418 (1991). Hotchkiss et al. (Thromb. Haemost., 60: 255-261 (1988))selectively removed oligosaccharide residues from the t-PA molecule, anddemonstrated that the removal of these residues decreased the rate ofclearance of t-PA. These researchers, and Lau et al. ((1987), supra,(1988), supra) also generated the t-PA variant N117Q (wherein asparagineat position 117 of wild-type human t-PA was substituted with glutamine)to prevent glycosylation at position 117. This variant, similarly tothat obtained by enzymatic removal of the high-mannose oligosaccharideat this position, exhibited an about two-fold slower clearance rate thanwild-type human t-PA. See also EP-A 238,304 published Sep. 23, 1987 andEP-A 227,462 published Jul. 1, 1987.

Several reports have suggested that the carbohydrate moieties of t-PAinfluence the in vitro activity of this enzyme (Einarsson et al., supra;Opdenakker et al., Proc. Sci. Exp. Biol. Med., 182: 248-257 (1986)).T-PA is endocytosed by mannose receptors of liver endothelial cells andby galactose receptors of parenchymal cells. Indeed, the in vivoclearance of recombinant human t-PA produced in mammalian cell cultureswas influenced by carbohydrate structures, particularly by thehigh-mannose oligosaccharides (Hotchkiss et al., supra). A t-PA variant(designated TNK t-PA) that has a glycosylation site added at amino acidposition 103, the native glycosylation site removed at amino acidposition 117, and the sequence at amino acid positions 296-299 of nativehuman t-PA replaced by AAAA, has been shown to have increasedcirculatory half-life, and markedly better fibrin specificity thanwild-type human t-PA (Keyt et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91:3670-3674 (1994)).

Glycoproteins Other than Native t-PA with More than One Glyoform

Cells expressing tPA-6, a molecule composed of the kringle-2 and serineprotease domains of t-PA, process it into two glycoforms, amonoglycosylated form with Asn-448 occupied, and a diglycosylated formwith Asn-448 and Asn184 occupied (Berg et al., Blood, 81: 1312-1322(1993)).

Plasminogen exists in two glycoforms. The more glycosylated form,commonly referred to as “plasminogen-1,” “plasminogen I,” or “Type 1plasminogen,” has a galactosamine-based oligosaccharide attached atamino acid position 345 (Thr345) and a complex glycosamine-basedoligosaccharide at amino acid position 288 (Asn288) of a native humanplasminogen molecule. The less glycosylated form, commonly referred toas “plasminogen-2,” “plasminogen II,” or “Type 2 plasminogen,” has asingle oligosaccharide chain attached at amino acid position 345(Thr345) (Hayes and Castellino, J. Biol. Chem., 254(18): 8772-8776,8777-8780 (1979); Lijnen et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 120: 149-154 (1981);Takada et al., Thrombosis Research, 39: 289-296 (1985)).

Other glycoproteins displaying variable site occupancy (variations in N-and O-glycosylation site-occupancy) include granulocyte-macrophagecolony-stimulating factor (Okamoto et al., Archives of Biochemistry andBiophysics, 286:562-568 (1991)), interferon-gamma (Curling et al.,Biochem. J., 272: 333-337 (1990)), protein C (Miletich and Broze, J.Biol. Chem., 265: 11397-11404 (1990)), and interleukin-2. Glycosylationof gamma-interferon was stable throughout an optimized culture designstrategy using fed-batch cultures, with exposure to glucose starvationpossibly leading to a dramatic change in glycosylation efficiency (Xieet al., Biotechnol. Bioeng., 56: 577-582 (1997)).

Different factors have been discussed to be potentially responsible forvariable site-occupancy, including availability of dolichol-phosphateand nucleotide sugars (Nyberg et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng., 62: 336-347(1999)), glycosyltransferase activity (Hendrickson and Imperiali,Biochemistry, 34: 9444-9450 (1995); Kaufman et al., Biochemistry, 33:9813-9819 (1994)), and variable glycosylation site accessibility due tocompetition with protein folding (Holst et al., The EMBO J., 15:3538-3546 (1996); Imperiali, Acc. Chem. Res., 30: 452-459 (1997);Shelikoff et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng., 50: 73-90 (1996)). Any of thesefactors could be influenced by cell culture conditions. T-PAsite-occupancy usually varies within a rather narrow range (±5%).

Studies of Oligosaccharyltransferase/Metal-gations in Glycosylation

Asparagine-linked glycosylation involves the enzyme-catalyzedmodification of an asparagine side chain in a nascent polypeptide with atri-antennary tetradeca-saccharide moiety. This first committed step inthe biosynthesis of N-linked glycoproteins is catalyzed byoligosaccharyltransferase, a heteromeric membrane-associated enzymecomplex found in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum of eukaryoticcells. See Imperiali, supra; Allen et al., J. Biol. Chem., 270:4797-4804 (1995); Sharma et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 116: 101-108 (1981);Silberstein and Gilmore, The FASEB Journal, 10: 849-858 (1996); Kumar elal., Biochem. Mol. Biol. Intl., 36: 817-826 (1995); Bause et al.,Biochem. J., 312: 979-985 (1995); Xu and Coward, Biochemistry, 36:14683-14689 (1997); Kumar et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 247:524-529 (1998); Watt et al., Curr. Op. Struct. Biol., 7: 652-660 (1997).

For optimal activity, oligosaccharyltransferase requires a small amountof manganese divalent ion, but other divalent metal cations with anoctahedral coordination geometry will support transfer, although atreduced rates (Hendrickson and Imperiali, supra; Kaufman et al., supra;Kumar et al., Biochem. & Mol. Biol. International, 36: 817-826 (1995)).

The Role of Temperature in Mammalian Cell Cultures

To simulate normal body environment, fermentor temperature incultivating mammalian cells is controlled almost exclusively at 37° C.This dogma is so widely accepted that, so far, little attention has beenpaid to varying temperature in the cell culture process. The scarceliterature data suggest that reduced fermentor temperature results inimproved cell viability and shear resistance, higher cell density andtiter in batch cultures, and a reduction in glucose/lactate metabolism(Chuppa et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng., 55: 328-338 (1997)).

Specifically, Reuveny et al., J. Immunol. Methods, 86: 53-59 (1986)studied the effect of temperatures in the range of 28° C. to 37° C. onbatch hybridoma cell cultures. They found that although at lowertemperatures the cell viability was improved, this was accompanied by adecrease in glucose uptake and a decrease in the specific antibodyproduction. Therefore, in this particular case, lower temperatures didnot enhance the overall performance of the cell culture process.

Sureshkumar and Mutharasan, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 37: 292-295 (1991)investigated the effect of the temperature range of 29° C. to 42° C. onthe cell culture process, and found that maximum cell density wasachieved at 33° C. In contrast, the glucose uptake and specific lactateproduction rates were dramatically lower at 33° C. than at 39° C. Theseresults showed that the optimal temperatures for growth and productivitymay considerably differ. While the viability increase at temperaturesbelow 37° C. appears to be a general phenomenon, the effect oftemperature on specific productivity has been shown to be cell-linedependent (Chuppa et al., supra).

Weidemann et al., Cytotechnology, 15: 111-116 (1994) cultivated adherentrecombinant baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells at temperatures between 30°and 37° C. The low-temperature cultivation in batch and repeated batchmode in a two-liter bioreactor showed a lower growth rate and a lowerglucose consumption rate (i.e., less lactate production). On the otherhand, the maximum cell density and productivity were not affected by thetemperature reduction.

Kretzmer et al., “Cultivation Temperature-Effect on Cell CultureProcesses and Their Optimization” (American Chemical Society Meeting,San Francisco, Calif.), abstract 138, presented Apr. 16, 1997, disclosedthe effect of cultivation temperature on cell culture processes andtheir optimization, but apparently no specific glycosylation analysis.

It has been suggested that reduced fermentor temperatures might haveother advantages related to product quality and integrity, but theeffect of low temperatures on product quality, and in particular, onprotein glycosylation, has been scarcely studied. Chuppa et al., supra,have reported that fermentation temperature did not have a significanteffect on the sialic acid content of glycoproteins. Although the totalsugar content was somewhat lower at 37° C. than at 34° C. or 35.5° C.,the authors viewed this difference as “not substantial.”

However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,364 described preparing glycoproteins bymammnalian cell culture wherein the sialic acid content of theglycoprotein produced was controlled over a broad range of values bymanipulating the cell culture environment, including the temperature.The host cell was cultured in a production phase of the culture byadding an alkanoic acid or salt thereof to the culture at a certainconcentration range, maintaining the osmolality of the culture at about250 to about 600 mOsm, and maintaining the temperature of the culturebetween about 30 and 35° C.

Bahr-Davidson, “Factors Affecting Glycosylation Site Occupancy of ASN-184 of Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator Produced in Chinese HamsterOvary Cells,” A Dissertation submitted to the Department of ChemicalEngineering and the Committee of Graduate Studies of Stanford Universityin Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy, May 1995, investigated the effects of temperature onglycosylation site occupancy and reported that site occupancy wasincreased by exposing cells to 26° C. (see pages 50-51).

Hormonal and Other Treatments to Influence Glycosylation

The effect of various additives such as components of plasma to theculture media on protein production and glycosylation has been studiedin the literature, for example, the effects of hormonal treatments onmembrane glycosylation in rat kidney brush broder membranes (Mittal etal., Indian J. Exper. Biol., 34: 782-785 (1996)). Studies of Muc-1 mucinexpression established the hormonal basis for MRNA expression (Parry etal., J. Cell Sci., 101: 191-199 (1992)). Thyroid hormone regulation ofalpha-lactalbumin with differential glycosylation has been reported(Ziska et al., Endocrinology, 123: 2242-2248 (1988)). The cellularresponse to protein N-glycosylation was increased in the presence ofthyroxine, insulin, and thrombin, and the effect was dose-dependent(Oliveira and Banerjee, J. Cell. Physiol., 144: 467-472 (1990)).Thyroxine was found to induce changes in the glycosylation pattern ofrat alpha-fetoprotein (Naval et al., Int. J. Biochem., 18: 115-122(1986)).

In addition to hormonal treatments, glutatb one and glucose-6-phosphatedehydrogenase deficiency increased protein glycosylation (Jain, FreeRadical Biology & Medicine, 24: 197-201 (1998)). Thyrotropin was foundto control oligosaccharyltransferase activity in thyroid cells(Desruisseau et al., Mol. Cell. Endocrinol., 122: 223-228 (1996)). Theaddition of glucose and tri-iodothyronine (T₃) to a medium producing apro-urokinase derivative improved productivity (Hosoi et al.,Cytotechnoloy, 19: 1-10 (1996)). Also, fucosyltransferase activity inthe rat small intestine was responsive to hydrocortisone regulationduring the suckling period (Biol et al., Biochim. Riophys. Acta, 1133:206-212 (1992)). Hydrocortisone treatment also induced quantitativealterations in glycosylation of mouse mammary tumor virus precursors(Maldarelli and Yagi, JNCI, 77: 1109-1115 (1986)). Glycosylation ofcellular glycoconjugates in a carcinoma cell line was enhanced by aretinoic acid (Sacks et al., Glycoconjugate J., 13: 791-796 (1996)).Further, retinoic acid had reversible effects on glycosaminoglycansynthesis during differentiation of HL-60 leukemia cells (Reiss et al.,Can Res., 45: 2092-2097 (1985)). Additionally, retinoic acid, as well ashydrocortisone, was found to modulate glycosaminoglycan synthesis ofhuman malignant keratinocytes (Reiss et al., J. Invest. Dermatol., 86:683-688 (1986)).

The competition between folding and glycosylation in the endoplasmicreticulum has been described (Holst et al., supra), as has acute heatshock inducing the phenomenon of prompt glycosylation (Jethmalani etal., J. Biol. Chem., 269: 23603-23609 (1994)).

There is a need for increasing glycosylation site occupancy inglycoproteins having multiple glycoforms to produce glycoproteintherapeutics of consistent product quality. For example, there is a needto increase the fraction of Type I t-PA in the t-PA production process.Such increase in site-occupancy generates t-PA with activity moreclosely resembling the international human t-PA standard, and thus moreclosely resembling human t-PA. Type I t-PA is also more soluble thanType II, which may be of some value in processing steps. Further,increased Type I is correlated with increasing circulatory half-life, asnoted above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has been found that during the production of a wild-typeglycoprotein, namely human t-PA, in mammalian cells, namely ChineseHamster Ovary (CHO) cells, use of certain divalent metals, hormones, orfactors that manipulate cell-cycle distribution to control or influenceglycosylation significantly increases site occupancy of a glycosylationsite of the glycoprotein. For example, decreasing the cultivationtemperature from 37° C. to about 30-35° C. in the production phasesignificantly enhances the occupancy of the glycosylation site at aminoacid position 184, and thereby increases the ratio of Type I t-PA toType II t-PA. Specifically, decreasing the temperature from 37 to 33 or31° C. increased t-PA site-occupancy up to 6%. Temperatures below 37° C.are expected similarly to facilitate the occupancy ofnot-easily-accessible N-linked glycosylation sites in otherglycoproteins. Accordingly, temperature can be used as a sensitive toolfor fine tuning the ratio of variously glycosylated forms ofglycoproteins having one or more N-linked glycosylation sites occupiedonly in a fraction of the protein.

In addition, other environmental factors, including those thatmanipulate the culture's growth state, and correspondingly cell-cycledistribution, such as butyrate, or a cell-cycle inhibitor that increasesthe proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase such as quinidine, plasmacomponents such as thyroid hormones, and/or certain divalent metalcations significantly elevated the t-PA Type I content (about 1-2.5%)compared to control conditions, and are expected to act similarly withrespect to other glycoproteins. In contrast, addition of the relevantnucleoside precursor molecules (e.g., uridine, guanosine, mannose) didnot result in improved site-occupancy.

In one aspect, the invention concerns a process for producing aglycoprotein comprising culturing mammalian host cells producing theglycoproteins (i.e., cells expressing nucleic acid encoding theglycoprotein) in the presence of (a) a factor that modifies growth statein a cell culture, (b) a divalent metal cation that can adopt andprefers an octahedral coordination geometry, or (c) a plasma component,whereby the occupancy of an N-linked glycosylation site occupied only ina fraction of the glycoprotein is enhanced in the glycoprotein soproduced. Preferably, the factor is a cell-cycle inhibitor that blockscells in the G0/G1 phase, a butyrate salt, and/or a temperature of theculture of between about 30 and 35° C., the divalent cation is manganeseor iron, and the plasma component is a hormone. Preferably, the cellculture procedure includes a growth phase, followed by a transitionphase and a production phase. In a preferred embodiment, in the growthphase the mammalian host cells are cultured at about 37° C., whereupon,during the transition phase, the temperature is lowered to between about30° C. and 35° C. The host cells preferably are CHO cells, and theglycoprotein preferably is t-PA.

In another aspect, the invention provides a process for producing humant-PA comprising culturing CHO cells expressing nucleic acid encodingsaid t-PA in a serum-free medium in a production phase at a temperatureof between about 30° C. and 35° C. and in the presence of about 0 to 2mM of a butyrate salt, whereby the occupancy of an N-linkedglycosylation site occupied only in a fraction of t-PA is enhanced inthe t-PA so produced:

In a still further aspect, the invention supplies a process forproducing human t-PA comprising culturing CHO cells expressing nucleicacid encoding said t-PA in a serum-free medium in a growth phase at atemperature of about 37-40° C., wherein said medium comprises from about10 nM to 100 μM of adivalent metal cation that can adopt and prefers anoctahedral coordination geometry; culturing said cell in a transitionphase at a temperature of about 37-40° C.; and culturing said cell in aproduction phase wherein after about 48 hours into the production phasethe temperature is lowered to between about 30° C. and 35° C. and about0.75 to 1.5 mM of a butyrate salt is added to the medium, whereby theoccupancy of an N-linked glycosylation site occupied only in a fractionof t-PA is enhanced in the t-PA so produced. In this process, a plasmacomponent such as a thyroid hormone, e.g., thyroxine ortri-iodothyronine, or a cell-cycle inhibitor that blocks cells in theG0/G1 phase such as quinidine is optionally added to the culture mediumbefore or during the growth phase.

Hence, the process herein facilitates the production of a preferredglycoform of a glycoprotein, such as Type I t-PA, in a mammalian cellculture, and also increases the ratio of preferred to non-preferredglycoproteins, such as the ratio of Type I to Type II t-PA, in amammalian cell culture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a depiction of Type I t-PA and Type II t-PA and achromatogram thereof.

FIG. 2 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures of CHOcells cultivated at various scales at 37° C.

FIG. 3 shows graphs of the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cellcultures of CHO cells at 37° C. as a function of 12K-fermentation runtime, with each graph line representing a different run.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cellcultures of CHO cells cultivated on a laboratory scale (in 25 cm²T-flasks and 100-ml spinner flasks-FIG. 4A) or in a 5-liter bioreactor(FIG. 4B for 5-7 days at 33° C. relative to control (cell culture keptat 37° C.).

FIG. 5 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures of CHOcells cultivated in T-flasks at 37° C. for 34 days wherein sodiumbutyrate is added in the amount indicated at the time of inoculation.The values are from triplicate experiments.

FIG. 6 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures of CHOcells cultivated in 60-mm culture dishes at 37° C. for 4-6 days whereintemperature changes with or without sodium butyrate are compared(wherein 37° C.1—means control at 37° C. with no butyrate; 37° C.11× isat 37° C. with 0.75 mM butyrate, 37° C.12× is at 37 ° C. with 1.5 mMbutyrate, 33° C.1—is at 33° C. with no butyrate, 33° C.11× is at 33° C.with 0.75 mM butyrate, 33° C.12× is at 33° C. with 1.5 mM butyrate, 31°C.1—is at 31° C. with no butyrate, 31° C.11× is at 31° C. with 0.75 mMbutyrate, and 31° C.12× is at 31° C. with 1.5 mM butyrate).

FIG. 7 shows percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures of CHOcells cultivated in 5-liter bioreactors after 5-7 days, whereintemperature changes with or without sodium butyrate are compared (wherecontrol is at 37° C. without butyrate, 33° C. is at 33° C. withoutbutyrate, 2× butr. is at 37° C. with 1.5 mM butyrate, and 33° C./2× isat 33° C. with 1.5 mM butyrate).

FIG. 8 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures of CHOcells cultivated in fermentors over time at 37° C. in which sodiumbutyrate was added to a concentration of 0.75 mM at approximately 48hours, and the percentages of cells in G0/G1 phase at the correspondingtime points. These results reflect the averages of three separatecultures.

FIG. 9 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures of CHOcells cultivated in T-flasks at 37° C. for 3-4 days wherein at the timeof inoculation no cell-cycle inhibitor is added (control), thymidine(250 μg/mL) is added, or quinidine (90 μM) is added. The values are fromtriplicate experiments.

FIGS. 10A and 10B show the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cellcultures of CHO cells cultivated in 60-mm culture dishes at 37° C. for4-6 days wherein at the time of inoculation 3 nM of MnCl₂ is added(control), or 10 nM, 100 nM, 1 μM, 10 μM, or 100 μM MnCl₂ is added. Thevalues are expressed in triplicate for FIG. 10A and as an average oftriplicates for FIG. 10B.

FIG. 11 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures ofCHO cells cultivated in 60-mm culture dishes at 37° C. for 4-6 dayswherein at the time of inoculation no ferric citrate is added (control),or 10 μM ferric citrate, 50 μM ferric citrate, or 100 μM ferric citrateis added.

FIG. 12 shows the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cell cultures ofCHO cells cultivated in 60-mm culture dishes at 37° C. for 4-6 dayswherein the cells are cultivated in the presence of increased amounts ofspecified nucleotide sugar precursor molecules.

FIGS. 13A and 13B show the percentage of Type I human t-PA in cellcultures of CHO cells cultivated in 60-mm culture dishes at 37° C. for 7days wherein at the time of inoculation no hormone is added (control),or 1 nM, 10 nM, or 100 nM of tri-iodothyronine (Triiod.) or of thyroxine(Thyrox.) is added. The values are expressed in triplicate for FIG. 13Aand as an average of triplicates for FIG. 13B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

I. Definitions

As used herein, the word “enhanced” as it relates to occupancy of anN-linked glycosylation site occupied only in a fraction of theglycoprotein refers to relative value obtained by practicing the currentinvention versus control value obtained by not using the parameters ofthis invention. The value is calculated based on the percentage ofglycosylation sites occupied at the particular position of theglycoprotein in question versus a baseline value, which is determinedwithout using the factors, cations, or plasma components herein claimed.For example, t-PA is secreted as a mixture of two major glycoforms, TypeI (all three N-glycosylation sites are occupied) and Type II (Asn-184 isnot occupied), and an enhanced occupancy level means an increased siteoccupancy such that the mixture has increased amounts of Type I relativeto Type II t-PA versus the control. This occupancy level can bemeasured, for example, by using reversed-phase high-pressure liquidchromatography (RP-HPLC) to elute the fragments of the different typesof glycoprotein (the types having different glycosylation site occupancylevels) and integrating the peak areas for each type of glycoprotein todetermine relative quantities. The most typical way to express thesequantities is by the percentage of the higher-occupancy type ofglycoprotein to total types of glycoprotein. A specific example of anassay used to measure enhancement for Type I/Type II t-PA is set forthbelow in Example 1.

As used herein, “glycoprotein” refers generally to peptides and proteinshaving more than about ten amino acids and at least one glycosylationsite that is occupied only in a fraction of the glycoprotein product,i.e., they display variable site-occupancy or variations in N- andO-glycosylation site-occupancy. The glycoproteins may be homologous tothe host cell, or preferably, they are heterologous, i.e., foreign, tothe host cell being utilized, such as a human protein produced by a CHOcell. Preferably, mammalian glycoproteins (glycoproteins that wereoriginally derived from a mammalian organism) are used, more preferably,those which are directly secreted into the medium, and most preferably,those wherein N-glycosylation site-occupancy is involved.

The specifically-preferred glycoproteins herein are t-PA, plasminogen,interferon-gamma, Protein C, IL-2, and CSF, for example, GM-CSF. Themore preferred glycoproteins are t-PA or plasminogen, and the mostpreferred is t-PA, more notably human t-PA.

The terms “tissue plasminogen activator”, and “t-PA” refer to humanextrinsic (tissue-type) plasminogen activator having fibrinolyticactivity that typically has a structure with five domains (finger,growth factor, kringle-1, kringle-2, and protease domains), butnonetheless may have fewer domains or may have some of its domainsrepeated if it still functions as a thrombolytic agent and retains theN-linked glycosylation sites at positions 117, 184, and 448. At minimum,the t-PA consists of a protease domain that is capable of convertingplasminogen to plasmin, and an N-terminal region believed to be at leastpartially responsible for fibrin binding, and retains the N-linkedglycosylation sites at positions corresponding to amino acid positions117, 184, and 448 of wild-type human t-PA. The retention of theseglycosylation sites is due to the fact that variable site occupancy ofrecombinant and melanoma-derived wild-type t-PA leads to production oftwo variants, designated as “Type I t-PA” and “Type II t-PA”,respectively. Type I t-PA contains N-linked oligosaccharides atpositions 117, 184, and 448. Type II t-PA contained N-linkedoligosaccharides at positions 117 and 448. See FIG. 1. It will beunderstood that natural allelic variations exist and can occur amongindividuals, as demonstrated by one or more amino acid differences inthe amino acid sequence of t-PA of each individual.

The terms “wild-type human tissue plasminogen activator”, “wild-typehuman t-PA”, “native human tissue plasminogen activator,” and “nativehuman t-PA”, where “human t-PA” may be abbreviated as “ht-PA”, refer tonative-sequence human t-PA, i.e., that encoded by the cDNA sequencereported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,075, issued Aug. 23, 1988. Amino acidsite numbers or positions in the t-PA molecule are labeled in accordancewith U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,075. The t-PA may be from any native source. Inaddition, the t-PA may be obtained from any recombinant expressionsystem, including, for example, CHO cells or human embryonic kidney 293cells.

As used herein, references to various domains of t-PA mean the domainsof wild-type human t-PA as hereinabove defined, and functionallyequivalent portions of human t-PA having amino acid alterations ascompared to the native human t-PA sequence, or of (native or variant)t-PA from other sources, such as bat tissue plasminogen activator(bat-PA). Thus, as used herein, the term “protease domain” refers to theregion extending from amino acid position 264 to amino acid position527, inclusive, of the mature form of wild-type human t-PA, and tofunctionally equivalent portions of human t-PA having amino acidalterations as compared to the native human t-PA sequence, or of t-PAfrom other sources, such as bat-PA.

As used herein, “factor that modifies growth state in a cell culture”refers to a factor that increases the proportion of cells in the G0/G1phase of growth such as a cell-cycle inhibitor that causes cells toaccumulate or blocks the cells in the G0/G1 phase. Such factorsmanipulate cell cycle distribution to control or influenceglycosylation. Such a factor may affect glycosylation in mechanismsbeyond growth state, but are defined herein as affecting at least thegrowth state.

As used herein, a “cell-cycle inhibitor that blocks cells in the G0/G1phase of growth” is a molecule that causes cells to accumulate in theG0/G1 phase of growth. This can be determined by cell cycle analysis,i.e., uniform suspensions of nuclei are stained with propidium iodide(PI) using the detergent-trypsin method of Vindelov et al., Cytometry,3: 323-327 (1983) to determine relative cellular DNA content by flowcytometric analysis. Events are gated using doublet discrimination toexclude doublets, and the data are modeled using ModFit LT Cell CycleAnalysis™ software (Verity Software House). A preferred such inhibitorherein is quinidine.

By “butyrate” or “butyrate salt” is meant any corresponding salt ofbutyric acid, such as sodium butyrate or potassium butyrate.

By “phase” is meant a certain phase of culturing of the cells as is wellrecognized by the practitioner. For example, “growth phase” of the cellculture refers to the period of exponential cell growth (the log phase)where cells are generally rapidly dividing. During this phase, cells arecultured for a period of time, usually between 1-4 days, and under suchconditions that cell growth is maximized. The growth cycle for the hostcell can be determined for the particular host cell envisioned withoutundue experimentation. During the growth phase, cells are cultured innutrient medium containing the necessary additives generally at about30-40° C., preferably about 37° C., in a humidified, controlledatmosphere, such that optimal growth is achieved for the particular cellline. Cells are maintained in the growth phase for a period of betweenabout one and four days, usually between about two and three days.

“Transition phase” of the cell culture refers to the period of timeduring which culture conditions for the production phase are engaged.During the transition phase environmental factors such as temperatureare shifted from growth conditions to production conditions.

“Production phase” of the cell culture refers to the period of timeduring which cell growth has plateaued. During the production phase,logarithmic cell growth has ended and glycoprotein production isprimary. During this period of time the medium is generally supplementedto support continued glycoprotein production and to achieve the desiredglycoprotein product.

By “divalent metal cation that can adopt and prefers an octahedralcoordination geometry” is meant a metal cation with two valencies thatis capable of, and actually shows preference for, adopting an octahedralcoordination geometry. Such cations are also characterized in thatoligosaccharyltransferase can function (i.e., is activated) in theirpresence. Examples of such metal ions include manganese (Mn²⁺), iron(Fe²⁺), calcium (Ca²⁺), and magnesium (Mg²⁺). Divalent cations that showpreferences for other coordination geometries, including nickel (Ni²⁺),copper (Cu²⁺), cadmium (Cd²⁺), and zinc (Zn²⁺), fail to activate theenzyme and at high concentrations also competitively inhibit activity inthe presence of manganese. Hence, these latter cations are excluded fromthe definition.

By “plasma component” is meant a constituent of normal plasma. Thiswould include growth promoters and tumor-promoting agents forendothelial cell growth, regulators of differentiation of epithelialtissues, glucagon, heparin, phorbol myristate acetate, PRL,thyroglobulin, 8Br-cAMP, thrombin, vitamin A and its derivatives(retinoids such as retinoic acid, e.g., beta-all-trans retinoic acid),glutathione, steroids such as corticosterone, cortisol, and corticoids,e.g., glucocorticoids such as hydrocortisone, and hormones, preferablythose that are vital hormones of metabolism such as estrogen, insulin,and thyroid hormones, e.g., thyroxine and tri-iodothyronine (T₃). Thethyroid hormones are preferred, and most preferably thyroxine andtri-iodothyronine. Since some serum, including fetal calf serum,contains thyroid hormones and the thyroid hormone binding protein atnanomolar levels, it is preferred to use serum-free medium, particularlyif thyroid hormones are employed to enhance site-occupancy.

The terms “cell culture medium,” “culture medium,” and “fermentationmedium” refer to a nutrient solution used for growing mammalian cellsthat typically provides at least one component from one or more of thefollowing categories:

1) an energy source, usually in the form of a carbohydrate such asglucose;

2) all essential amino acids, and usually the basic set of twenty aminoacids plus cysteine;

3) vitamins and/or other organic compounds required at lowconcentrations;

4) free fatty acids; and

5) trace elements, where trace elements are defined as inorganiccompounds or naturally-occurring elements that are typically required atvery low concentrations, usually in the micromolar range.

The cell culture medium is generally “serum free” when the medium isessentially free of serum from any mammalian source (e.g. fetal bovineserum (FBS)). By “essentially free” is meant that the cell culturemedium comprises between about 0-5% serum, preferably between about 0-1%serum, and most preferably between about 0-0.1% serum. Advantageously,serum-free “defined” medium can be used, wherein the identity andconcentration of each of the components in the medium is known (i.e., anundefined component such as bovine pituitary extract (BPE) is notpresent in the culture medium).

In the context of the present invention the expressions “cell”, “cellline”, and “cell culture” are used interchangeably, and all suchdesignations include progeny. Thus, the words “transformants” and“transformed (host) cells” include the primary subject cell and culturesderived therefrom without regard for the number of transfers. It is alsounderstood that all progeny may not be precisely identical in DNAcontent, due to deliberate or inadvertent mutations. Mutant progeny thathave the same function or biological activity as screened for in theoriginally transformed cell are included. Where distinct designationsare intended, it will be clear from the context.

The term “mammalian host cell”, “host cell”, “mammalian cell”,“mammalian recombinant host cell,” and the like, refer to cell linesderived from mammals that are capable of growth and survival when placedin either monolayer culture or in suspension culture in a mediumcontaining the appropriate nutrients and growth factors. The necessarygrowth factors for a particular cell line are readily determinedempirically without undue experimentation, as described, for example, inMammalian Cell Culture, Mather, J. P. ed. (Plenum Press: N.Y., 1984),and Barnes and Sato, Cell, 22: 649 (1980). Typically, the cells arecapable of expressing and secreting large quantities of a particularglycoprotein of interest into the culture medium. Examples of suitablemammalian host cells within the context of the present invention mayinclude CHO cells (EP 117,159, published Aug. 29, 1989; U.S. Pat. Nos.4,766,075; 4,853,330; 5,185,259; Lubiniecki et al., in Advances inAnimal Cell Biology and Technology for Bioprocesses, Spier et al., eds.(1989), pp.442-451), for example, CHO derivatives such as CHO/-DHFR(Urlaub and Chasin, Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA, 77: 4216 (1980)), CHO-K1DUX B11 (Simonsen and Levinson, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:2495-2499(1983); Urlaub and Chasin, supra), and dp 12.CHO cells (EP307,247 published Mar. 15, 1989); rat myeloma YB2/3.oAg20(WO 86/00127published Apr. 1, 1985); mouse C127 fibroblasts (Reddy et al., DNA, 6:461-472 (1987)); mouse sertoli cells (TM4, Mather, Biol. Reprod., 23:243-251 (1980)); human cervical carcinoma cells (HELA, ATCC CCL 2);human lung cells (W138, ATCC CCL 75); human liver cells (Hep G2, HB8065); mouse mammary tumor (MMT 060562, ATCC CCL51); TRI cells (Matheret al., Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci., 383: 44-68 (1982)); MRC 5 cells; FS4cells; and human melanoma cells (Browne et al., Thromb. Haemost., 54:422-424 (1985)). Preferred host cells include CHO-K1 DUX B11 and dp12.CHO cells.

The CHO cells developed for large-scale production of t-PA aremaintained cryogenically in a MCB/working cell bank (WCB) system asdescribed by Wiebe et al., in Large Scale Mammalian Cell CultureTechnology, Lubiniecki, ed., (Marcel Dekker: New York, 1990), pp.147-160. DHFR+CHO-K1 cells transfected with DNA encoding human t-PA havebeen deposited at the American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, Va.(ATCC), and are available under accession number CCL 61. A sample ofanother t-PA-producing CHO cell line (CHO cell line 1-15₁₅) has beendeposited under ATCC accession number CRL 9606. The latter cell line wasreported to result in human t-PA levels approaching 50 pg/cell/day.

II. Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

General and Specific Features of Invention

It has been discovered that utilizing a factor that modifies growthstate in a cell culture (such as a cell-cycle inhibitor, a butyratesalt, or lowering the temperature during the production of aglycoprotein in a mammalian cell culture from 37° C. to about 30-35°C.), or utilizing a divalent metal cation that can adopt and prefers anoctahedral coordination geometry, or utilizing a plasma component,enhances the occupancy of the glycosylation site at a selected anddesired amino acid position of the wild-type glycoprotein.

For example, this lowering of temperature enhances the occupancy of theglycosylation site at amino acid position 184 of wild-type human t-PAand, accordingly, increases the ratio of Type I t-PA to Type II t-PA.The ability to adjust, and increase, the Type I to Type II t-PA ratio issignificant, since it enables the manufacturer to produce a recombinantprotein in which this ratio closely approximates the ratio present innative t-PA (about 1:1). In addition, the ratio of Type I to Type IIt-PA affects the solubility and clearance rate of t-PA, and there isevidence that an increased Type I t-PA concentration somewhat increasesthe circulatory half-life of t-PA. It is known that the high-mannoseoligosaccharide at amino acid position 117 is primarily responsible forthe rapid clearance of native human t-PA. When this oligosaccharide isremoved, it has been observed that Type I t-PA has a longer half-lifethan Type II t-PA, indicating that there is a secondary mechanism onwhich the extra oligosaccharide present on Type I t-PA has a positiveeffect. The experimental findings herein can be extended to otherglycoproteins that (like t-PA) have at least one glycosylation site thatis occupied only in a fraction of the glycoprotein product.

If the factor is a butyrate salt, generally the butyrate is present in aconcentration of up to about 2 mM, more preferably about 0.35 to 2 mM,still more preferably about 0.75 to 1.5 mM. The concentration thereof tobe selected within this range depends mainly on the temperature to whichthe culture is subjected and the type of glycoprotein. Hence, if fort-PA the temperature remains at about 37 ° C. or is lowered to about33-35° C., the butyrate concentration is preferably lower than about 1.5mM, and more preferably is about 0.3 to 1 mM, most preferably 0.75 mM.However, if for t-PA the temperature is lowered to about 30-31° C.,preferably the butyrate concentration is about 1-2 mM, more preferablyabout 1.5 mM. This illustration shows that more than one of thesefactors may be operating or present in the cell culture.

In a preferred aspect, the temperature lowering and/or butyrate additiontake(s) place during the production phase of the growth cycle. In such ascenario, the temperature is lowered to between about 30 and 35° C.and/or a butyrate salt is added about 48 hours into the productionphase. The production phase is suitably preceded by a growth phase and atransition phase of growth cycle. During the growth phase thetemperature is preferably kept at about 37° C., and/or during thetransition phase the temperature of the culture is preferably lowered tobetween about 30° C. and 35° C., more preferably about 31-33° C., andmost preferably about 31° C.

Alternatively, or additionally to the factor(s) above, the cells arecultured in the presence of a divalent cation as defined above. Thechoice of divalent cation to use, as well as the specific concentrationthereof, depends, inter alia, on the type of glycoprotein being producedand the metal cations and other components already present in theculture medium and their respective concentrations. For example, if theglycoprotein has a number of thio groups, it is preferred to use athiophilic metal such as manganese and iron, with iron being the mostthiophilic metal. In contrast, if the glycoprotein contains more oxygengroups, then the oxophilic cations, magnesium and calcium, arepreferred. If calcium ion is already present in sufficient quantities inthe medium, it is not typically used for the purposes herein and adifferent metal cation is used. Further, the size of the metal cationmay have an influence, with iron and magnesium being smaller and calciumand manganese being larger. Steric effects due to sulfur groups on theglycoprotein may dictate a cation of smaller ionic radius. The preferreddivalent metal cation herein is manganese, magnesium, or iron, morepreferably manganese or iron, and most preferably manganese.

The divalent metal cation is preferably present in the culture mediumduring the whole cultivation time, and at least is added during thegrowth phase. The concentration thereof generally ranges between about10 nm and 150 μM, preferably from about 10 nm to 100 μM for manganeseand from about 20 μM to 100 μM for iron.

In another alternative, alone or together with the divalent cationand/or factor, a plasma component is present during the culturing. Theplasma component is typically present in an amount from about 1 nM to15-20 μM, depending mainly on the type of glycoprotein being produced,the type of plasma component utilized, and the scale of fermentation.For example, if the plasma component is a thyroid hormone, it ispreferably present in an amount of about 1-150 nM, preferably about10-100 nM. If the plasma component is glutathione, it is preferablypresent at about 1-10 μM, and if hydrocortisone, it is preferablypresent at about 5-15 nM, preferably about 10 nM. Preferably, the plasmacomponent is a hormone, more preferably a thyroid hormone, and mostpreferably thyroxine or tri-iodothyronine.

The degree of site-occupancy to be achieved for the glycoprotein isbalanced against the desired degree of secretion of the glycoprotein,which is generally taken into account in selecting which factors andother components to employ, and at what concentrations or temperatures.For example, site-occupancy is generally controlled in a select range ofabout ±5% without affecting t-PA secretion.

Cell Culture Procedures

According to the present invention mammalian cells are cultured toproduce a desired glycoprotein product. In choosing a host cell for theproduction of the glycoprotein within the context of the presentinvention, it is important to recognize that different host cells havecharacteristic and specific mechanisms for the translational andpost-translational processing and modification (e.g., glycosylation,cleavage) of the proteins expressed. Appropriate cell lines should bechosen to ensure that the desired post- translational modifications arepossible. Alternatively, host cells can be modified to express a desiredgene product required for the specific post-translational modification.

In particular, the mammalian cells that express the desired glycoproteinshould express or be manipulated to express the particular enzymes suchthat under suitable conditions, the appropriate post-translationalmodification occurs in vivo. The enzymes include those enzymes necessaryfor the addition and completion of N- and O-linked carbohydrates such asthose described in Hubbard and Ivatt, Ann., Rev. Biochem., 50: 555-583(1981) for N-linked oligosaccharides. The enzymes optionally includeoligosaccharyltransferase, alpha-glucosidase I, alpha-glucosidase II, ERalpha(1,2)mannosidase, Golgi alpha-mannodase I,N-acetylyglucosaminyltransferase I, Golgi alpha-mannodase II,N-acetylyglucosaminyltransferase II, alpha(1 ,6)fucosyltransferase,β(1,4)galactosyltransferase, and an appropriate sialyltransferase.

For culturing the mammalian cells that express the desired glycoproteinand are capable of adding the desired carbohydrates in specific positionand linkage, numerous culture conditions can be used, paying particularattention to the host cell being cultured. Suitable culture conditionsfor mammalian cells are well known in the art (Cleveland et al., J.Immunol. Methods, 56: 221-234 (1983)) or can be easily determined by theskilled artisan (see, for example, Animal Cell Culture: A PracticalAprroach 2nd Ed, Rickwood, D. and Hames, B. D., eds. (Oxford UniversityPress: New York, 1992)), and vary according to the particular host cellselected.

The mammalian cell culture of the present invention is prepared in amedium suitable for the particular cell being cultured. The nutrientsolution may optionally be supplemented with one or more components fromany of the following categories:

1) plasma components as defined above and/or growth factors such as, forexample, insulin, transferrin, and EGF;

2) salts and buffers such as, for example, sodium chloride, calcium,magnesium, phosphate, and HEPES;

3) nucleosides and bases such as, for example, adenosine, thymidine, andhypoxanthine;

4) protein and tissue hydrolysates;

5) antibiotics such as GENTAMYCIN™ drug; and

6) lipids such as linoleic or other fatty acids and their suitablecarriers.

Any other necessary supplements may also be included at appropriateconcentrations that would be known to those skilled in the art.

Commercially available media such Ham's F10 (Sigma), Minimal EssentialMedium (MEM, Sigma), RPMI-1640 (Sigma), and Dulbecco's Modified Eagle'sMedium (DMEM, Sigma) are exemplary nutrient solutions. In addition, anyof the media described in Ham and McKeehan, Meth. Enz., 58: 44 (1979);Barnes and Sato, Anal. Biochem., 102: 255 (1980); U.S. Pat. No.4,767,704; U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,866; U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,762; U.S. Pat.No. 5,122,469 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,655; WO 90/03430; and WO 87/00195may be used as culture media. Any of these media may be supplemented asnecessary with the components as mentioned above.

The use of a special medium lacking animal serum (serum-free medium) ispreferred to avoid interference or counter-action from components of theserum with one or more of the factors, divalent metal cations, plasmacomponents, or other ingredients employed in accordance with the presentinvention. Moreover, the concentration of the amine groups should besufficiently high to keep t-PA in solution as the concentrationincreases. This can be achieved by using greater than about 1 mM lysineconcentrations, by the presence of HEPES, or by the use of sufficientlyhigh ammonium chloride concentrations, although any other amine orammonium source will do.

If the goal is to produce t-PA in substantially single-chain form, theculture medium (just as the medium used in the subsequent recovery andpurification steps) contains a protease inhibitor, such as aprotinin,alpha-1 antitrypsin, alpha-2 macroglobulin, soybean trypsin, etc.Preferably, aprotinin is employed at a concentration of about 5 to 100KIU/ml, more preferably about 10 KIU/ml in the t-PA production medium.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the mammalian host cell is a CHOcell, preferably CHO-K1 DUX B11. The necessary nutrients and growthfactors for the medium, including their concentrations, for a particularcell line, are determined empirically without undue experimentation asdescribed, for example, in Mammalian Cell Culture, Mather, ed. (PlenumPress: NY, 1984) and by Barnes and Sato, Cell, 22: 649 (1980). Asuitable medium contains a basal medium component such as a DMEM/HAMF-12-based formulation (for composition of DMEM and HAM F12 media andespecially serum-free media, see culture media formulations in AmericanType Culture Collection Catalogue of Cell Lines and Hybridomas, SixthEdition, 1988, pages 346-349), with modified concentrations of somecomponents such as amino acids, salts, sugar, and vitamins, andoptionally containing glycine, hypoxanthine, and thymidine; recombinanthuman insulin, hydrolyzed peptone, such as PRIMATONE HS™ or PRIMATONERL™ (Sheffield, England), or the equivalent; a cell protective agent,such as PLURONIC F68™ or the equivalent pluronic polyol; GENTAMYCIN™;and trace elements. The formulations of medium as described in U.S. Pat.No. 5,122,469, characterized by the presence of high levels of certainamino acids, as well as PS-20 as described below, are particularlyappropriate.

The glycoproteins of the present invention may be produced by growingcells which express the desired glycoprotein under a variety of cellculture conditions. For instance, cell culture procedures for the large-or small-scale production of glycoproteins are potentially useful withinthe context of the present invention. Procedures including, but notlimited to, a fluidized bed bioreactor, hollow fiber bioreactor, rollerbottle culture, or stirred tank bioreactor system may be used, in thelater two systems, with or without microcarriers, and operatedalternatively in a batch, fed-batch, or continuous mode.

In a preferred embodiment the cell culture of the present invention isperformed in a stirred tank bioreactor system and a fed-batch cultureprocedure is employed. In the preferred fed-batch culture the mammalianhost cells and culture medium are supplied to a culturing vesselinitially and additional culture nutrients are fed, continuously or indiscrete increments, to the culture during culturing, with or withoutperiodic cell and/or product harvest before termination of culture. Thefed-batch culture can include, for example, a semi-continuous fed-batchculture, wherein periodically whole culture (including cells and medium)is removed and replaced by fresh medium Fed-batch culture isdistinguished from simple-batch culture in which all components for cellculturing (including the cells and all culture nutrients) are suppliedto the culturing vessel at the start of the culturing process. Fed-batchculture can be further distinguished from perfusion culturing insofar asthe supernate is not removed from the culturing vessel during theprocess (in perfusion culturing, the cells are restrained in the cultureby, e.g., filtration, encapsulation, anchoring to microcarriers, etc.,and the culture medium is continuously or intermittently introduced andremoved from the culturing vessel).

Further, the cells of the culture may be propagated according to anyscheme or routine that may be suitable for the particular host cell andthe particular production plan contemplated. Therefore, the presentinvention contemplates a single-step or multiple-step culture procedure.In a single-step culture the host cells are inoculated into a cultureenvironment and the processes of the instant invention are employedduring a single production phase of the cell culture. Alternatively, amulti-stage culture is envisioned. In the multi-stage culture cells maybe cultivated in a number of steps or phases. For instance, cells may begrown in a first step or growth phase culture wherein cells, possiblyremoved from storage, are inoculated into a medium suitable forpromoting growth and high viability. The cells may be maintained in thegrowth phase for a suitable period of time by the addition of freshmedium to the host cell culture.

According to a preferred aspect of the invention, fed-batch orcontinuous cell culture conditions are devised to enhance growth of themammalian cells in the growth phase of the cell culture. In the growthphase cells are grown under conditions and for a period of time that ismaximized for growth. Culture conditions, such as temperature, pH,dissolved oxygen (DO₂), and the like, are those used with the particularhost and will be apparent to the ordinarily-skilled artisan. Generally,the pH is adjusted to a level between about 6.5 and 7.5 using either anacid (e.g., CO₂) or a base (e.g., Na₂CO₃ or NaOH). A suitabletemperature range for culturing mammalian cells such as CHO cells isbetween about 30 to 40° C. and preferably about 37° C. and a suitableDO₂ is between 5-90% of air saturation.

At a particular stage the cells may be used to inoculate a productionphase or step of the cell culture. Alternatively, as described above theproduction phase or step may be continuous with the inoculation orgrowth phase or step.

According to the present invention, the cell-culture environment duringthe production phase of the cell culture is controlled. In a preferredaspect, the production phase of the cell culture process is preceded bya transition phase of the cell culture in which parameters for theproduction phase of the cell culture are engaged.

T-PA production in mammalian, e.g., CHO, cells typically employs asemi-continuous process whereby cells are culture in a “seed-train” forvarious periods of time and are periodically transferred to inoculumfermentors to initiate the cell-amplification process en route to t-PAproduction at larger scale. Thus, cells used for rt-PA production are inculture for various periods of time up to a maximum predefined cell age.The parameters of the cell culture process, such as seed density, pH,DO₂ and temperature during culture, duration of the production culture,operating conditions of harvest, etc. are a function of the particularcell line and culture medium used, and can be determined empirically,without undue experimentation.

Recovery of the Glycoprotein from the Cell Culture

Following the polypeptide production phase, the glycoprotein of interestis recovered from the culture medium using techniques which are wellestablished in the art. The glycoprotein of interest preferably isrecovered from the culture medium as a secreted polypeptide, although italso may be recovered from host cell lysates.

As a first step, the culture medium or lysate is centrifuged to removeparticulate cell debris. The glycoprotein thereafter is purified fromcontaminant soluble proteins and polypeptides, with the followingprocedures being exemplary of suitable purification procedures: byfractionation on immunoaffinity or ion-exchange columns; ethanolprecipitation; reverse phase HPLC; chromatography on silica or on acation-exchange resin such as DEAE; chromatofocusing; SDS-PAGE; ammoniumsulfate precipitation; gel filtration using, for example, SEPHADEXG-75™; and protein A SEPHAROSE™ columns to remove contaminants such asIgG. A protease inhibitor such as phenyl methyl sulfonyl fluoride (PMSF)also may be useful to inhibit proteolytic degradation duringpurification. One skilled in the art will appreciate that purificationmethods suitable for the glycoprotein of interest may requiremodification to account for changes in the character of the glycoproteinupon expression in recombinant cell culture.

Also of utility within the context of the present invention arepurification techniques and processes that select for the carbohydratesof the invention. Such techniques include, for example, ion-exchangesoft gel chromatography or HPLC using cation- or anion-exchange resins,wherein the more acidic or more basic fraction is collected, dependingon which carbohydrate is being selected for.

In a preferred embodiment, CHO cells capable of producing ht-PA aregrown as a suspension in a CHO medium to a predetermined cell density.The cell suspension may be concentrated by cross-flow filtration. Activeht-PA is produced subsequently by the CHO cells suspended in theserum-free expression medium. The ht-PA thus produced is secreted by theCHO cells into the expression medium and may be separated from it bystandard techniques.

Several techniques may be used for recovery of the t-PA. For example, atthe end of the culture, tangential flow filtration, includinghigh-pressure-tangential flow filtration, can be used to remove themedium containing t-PA from the cells.

The cell culture supernatants may concentrated, diafiltered, and loadedonto an affinity column capable of specific binding of t-PA, typically alysine affinity column. Under the chromatography conditions employed,t-PA adheres selectively to the affinity column from which it can berecovered and subjected to further purification.

In the diafiltration step, the supernatant of the cell culture on adialysis membrane may be diafiltered with a dialysis buffer comprisingpropylene glycol, the solution obtained by diafiltration may be loadedon an affinity column capable of selective binding of t-PA, and t-PA maybe eluted from the affinity column with a buffer at a pH of about 5.0 toabout 9.0. The affinity column preferably is a lysine affinity column,which is preferably eluted at a pH of about 5.0 to about 8.5, morepreferably from about 6.0 to about 8.5. Lysine affinity columns are wellknown in the art and are commercially available. Suitable columnsinclude Lysine CPG™ (Bioprocessing), ECH Lysine CL™ (Pharmacia), andLysine Hyper D™ (Biosepra). The gel is preferably equilibrated with a 50mM Na₂HPO₄ or K₂HPO₄ solution (pH 7.5) prior to loading of the t-PAsolution. The elution buffer typically contains 200 mM arginine, and 50mM Na₂HPO₄ or K₂HPO₄ (pH 7.5). Preferably, the elution bufferadditionally contains propylene glycol in a concentration of about 2.5to about 20%.

After the foregoing recovery/initial purification steps, the feed streamcontaining 0.5 to 3.0 mg/ml t-PA simultaneously generally contains about0.05 to 5 ng/ml of DNA as determined by a DNA dot blot assay using³²P-labeled DNA derived from the same cell line, resulting in acalculated clearance of approximately 2×10⁴-fold (depending on thesource of the lysine resin and on the wash conditions used). To furtherreduce the level of DNA in the product to less than one picogram perhuman dose, a specific ion-exchange step may be incorporated into thepurification procedure, using commercially available ion-exchangecolumns, such as a DE-52™ column (Whatman), or DEAE-SEPHAROSE FAST FLOW™column (Pharmacia).

The purification protocol further includes additional steps thatinactivate and/or remove retroviruses that might potentially be presentin the cell culture fluid of continuous mammalian cell lines. Asignificant number of viral clearance steps are available, includingadditional ultrafiltration/diafiltration steps, treatment withchaotropes such as urea or guanidine, pH extremes, detergents, heat,chemical derivatization, such as formaldehyde, proteases, conventionalseparation, such as ion-exchange or size exclusion chromatography,organic solvents, etc. The particular step(s) chosen for viral removalis/are not critical aspect(s) of the present invention, and need to meetthe following criteria for t-PA: 1. t-PA must be stable under thetreatment conditions while the target virus must be sensitive to thetreatment, and 2. the “window of clearance” must be maximum. The “windowof clearance” is defined for this purpose as the ratio of initial virustiter (spike) in the process fluid prior to the treatment to virus titerafter the treatment of the process fluid.

The recombinant human t-PA recovered and purified following theforegoing protocol typically is at least about97-99.9% pure (dependingon the lysine resin). If necessary, further purification can be achievedby additional steps, such as cation-exchange chromatography.Accordingly, the product is suitable for therapeutic applications.Various variants of native human t-PA can be purified by essentially thesame procedure, and other glycoproteins may be purified by proceduresused for their wild-type counterparts, using procedures well-known inthe art.

The present invention is further illustrated by the following,non-limiting examples. It is noted that the method of the presentinvention is equally applicable to the production of other glycoproteinshaving more than one glycoform in mammalian cell cultures, and themodifications that might become necessary in the course of theadaptation of the exemplified method to the production of differentglycoproteins are well within the skill of an ordinary artisan.

EXAMPLE 1 Temperature Shift in the Production of rht-PA

Materials and Methods

CHO cells: The CHO cell line used as the mammalian host cell line wasderived from CHO-K1 (ATCC No. CCL61 CHO-K1), and is a CHO-K1 mutantdihydrofolate reductase (DHFR⁻)-deficient cell line named CHO-K1 DUX-B11(DHFR⁻) (obtained from Dr. L. Chasin of Columbia University; Simonsenand Levinson, supra; Urlaub and Chasin, supra).

PS-20 basal medium: The components of this medium are listed in Table 1below.

TABLE 1 Concentration Component (mg/l) Calcium chloride, anhydrous116.61 Cupric sulfate, pentahydrate 0.0012 Ferric nitrate, nonahydrate0.05 Ferrous sulfate, heptahydrate 0.417 Potassium chloride 759.0Magnesium sulfate, anhydrous 48.835 Magnesium chloride, anhydrous 143.05Sodium phosphate, monobasic, monohydrate 62.5 Sodium phosphate, dibasic,anhydrous 71.02 Zinc sulfate, heptahydrate 0.4315 Linoleic acid 0.294Lipoic acid (DL thioctic acid) 0.735 Putrescine, dihydrochloride 0.5635Sodium pyruvate 385.0 Alanine 31.15 Arginine, monohydrochloride 780.5Asparagine, monohydrate 52.53 Aspartic acid 46.55 Cysteine,monohydrochloride, monohydrate 122.92 Cystine, dihydrochloride 31.285Glutamic acid 51.45 Glutamine 1606.0 Histidine, monohydrochloride,monohydrate 94.36 Isoleucine 66.29 Leucine 98.35 Lysine,monohydrochloride 200.75 Methionine 30.68 Phenylalanine 50.36 Proline120.75 Serine 57.75 Threonine 89.15 Tryptophan 15.14 Tyrosine, disodiumsalt, dihydrate 79.125 Valine 87.95 Biotin 0.0256 D-Calcium pantothenate3.68 Choline chloride 50.86 Cyanocobalamin (B12) 4.76 Folic acid 6.55i-Inositol 66.60 Nicotinamide 2.1295 Pyridoxal, monohydrochloride 2.000Pyridoxine, monohydrochloride 0.217 Riboflavin 0.3330 Thiamine,monohydrochloride 3.190 Glucose 4301.0 Sodium bicarbonate 2440.0 Sodiumchloride 5900.0 Pluronic F-68 Prill 1000.0 HEPES 2383.0 Phenol Red 8.10

For convenience, the solid ingredients of the medium may be combinedtogether with the amino acids, and this mixture may be stored as asingle unit.

Type I/Type II t-PA assay:

1. Thaw cell culture supernatant sample (If whole broth, spin out cellsin centrifuge.)

2. Add 2 μl freshly thawed plasminogen to 400 μl of sample.

3. Incubate at 37° C. for 60 minutes.

4. Add 20 μl freshly-thawed 1 M DTT and 400 μl 8 M guanidine-HCl/50 mMTRIS/3.2 mM EDTA solution.

5. Incubate at 37° C. for 15 minutes.

6. Transfer to vial and load 250 μl for assay on HP 1090™ HPLC using thefollowing conditions:

ZORBAX™ C8 column at 40° C.;

Monitoring of eluents by fluorescence (excitation at 275 nm, emission at340 nm);

Running each sample with the following 70-minute method where eluent Ais 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in water and eluent B is 0.1% TFA inacetonitrile:

0 to 5 min.—75% A (and 25% B)

5 to 35 min.—a linear gradient from 75% A to 60% A

35.1 to 45 min.—0% A

45 min. to 70 min.—75% A to re-equilibrate the column

Type I/Type II fragments elute after approximately 25 minutes, and peakareas are integrated to determine relative quantities.

Protocol

Recombinant ht-PA-producing CHO cells were carried in spinner flaskspassaged every 3 or 4 days (at a density of 0.1% packed cell volume(PCV)) in selective medium (PS-20 basal medium supplemented with 500 mMmethotrexate, 10 mg/L recombinant human insulin (rh-insulin), 0.1 ml/Ltrace elements, and 0.05 ml/L lipid-ethanol). Sufficient culture wasremoved to seed 15 ml of medium at 0.2% PCV, and placed in a 50 mlsterile Falcon tube. The culture was centrifuged for 10 minutes at700-1000 rpm and the supernatant was poured off. Upon addition of 15 mlof fresh selective medium, the culture was agitated gently to resuspendcells. Five ml of culture was placed in three T-25 flasks (25 cm²T-flasks). The caps were left loosened to allow equilibration withincubator atmosphere and the flasks were placed in a 33° C. or 31° C.incubator with 5% carbon dioxide. After 5 to 8 days of incubation, thecells were counted using a hemacytometer and/or by checking packed cellvolume, and viability was checked using trypan blue. The culture wasremoved from the flasks, centrifuged for 10 minutes at 2000-2200 rpm,and the supernatant was assayed for rht-PA glycosylation. Alternativelyto the T-25 flasks, the cells were cultured using 60-mm cell cultureplates in triplicates.

Supernatants were frozen at −20° C. or −70° C. until the Type I/II t-PAanalysis took place.

For spinner experiments, the foregoing protocol was used, except thecells were passaged into 200 ml of fresh medium (with initial PCV of0.1%), in a 250-ml spinner flask. The caps were closed tightly on theflask, which was then placed in the 33° C. or 31° C. incubator on amagnetic stir plate at 60 rpm.

The mini-fermentor experiments were performed under standard t-PAproduction conditions in fed-batch mode as noted herein in 5-literstirred tank bioreactors (Applikon, Foster City, Calif.). Thetemperature was shifted to 33° C. or 31° C. on day 2 of the productionphase.

For control experiments, the foregoing experiments were followed, exceptthat incubation took place at 37° C. Further, experiments were performedas above in 12-K fermentors over the course of 200 hours and thepercentage of Type I t-PA was assessed.

For the experiments herein and below, culture conditions were usuallychanged on day 1 (e.g., addition of different media components) and day2 (e.g., temperature shift).

Results

t-PA site occupancy at Asn-184 was found to be relatively consistentacross a variety of scales (T-flask, spinner, and 80-L, 400-L, 2000-L,and 12,000-L fermentors) (FIG. 2) and from run to run in production. Thefactors that can affect site occupancy include those factors affectingoligosaccharide-dolichol availability (dolichol phosphate, lipids, andhormones), factors affecting protein translation elongation rate (e.g.,cyclohexamide), factors affecting oligosaccharyltransferase activity orprotein folding rate (e.g., dithiothreitol), and factors acting throughunknown mechanisms, such as time in culture. Illustrating the lattermostphenomenon, FIG. 3 shows graphs of the percentage of Type I human t-PAin cell cultures of CHO cells at 37° C. as a function of12K-fermentation run time, with each graph line representing a differentrun. These results show that site-occupancy increases over the course ofa batch culture (over culture length).

FIG. 4 shows that reducing temperature increases t-PA site occupancy.Specifically, FIG. 4A shows the results of laboratory-scale experimentsperformed for 5-7 days (T-flasks and spinner flasks). In the controlexperiments, where in the production phase the temperature remained at37° C., the product contained about 38% Type I t-PA. In contrast, in theexperiments where in the production phase the temperature was lowered to33° C., the t-PA product obtained contained about 43-46% Type I t-PA.FIG. 4B shows the results of bioreactor experiments, indicating that thelower temperature similarly yields a higher percentage of Type I t-PA.

EXAMPLE 2 Butyrate Addition in the Production of rht-PA

Materials and Methods

The quantity of cells needed for a 0.2% packed cell volume seed densitywas centrifuged at approximately 700×g for 10 minutes, and resuspendedin 25 cm² T-flasks in the appropriate fresh medium for each test case.The T-flasks were set up in triplicate with 5 mL in each flask andincubated for 3 to 4 days at 37° C. and 95% air 5% CO₂. Sodium butyratewas added to a concentration of 0.375 mM, 0.75 mM, or 1.5 mM at the timeof inoculation for the 25 cm² T-flasks. Cells were also cultured inspinner flasks at volumes of 100 ml with similar butyrate concentrationsto the T-flask cases. For fermentor experiments, butyrate was added onthe second day of the experiments. T-flask cultures were also carriedout at 33° C. and 37° C. with no butyrate additions. The data shown forthe T-flask cultures at 33° C. are from two triplicate experiments(n=6). T-PA site-occupancy was analyzed using the method of Example 1.

Results

FIG. 5 shows that the presence of sodium butyrate at concentrations of0.375 to 1.5 mM at the time of inoculation increased t-PA site-occupancyin the T-flasks at 37° C. The same increased effect was observed for thespinner flask and fermentor experiments.

FIG. 6 shows that for the 60-mm culture plate experiments, temperatureshifts to 33° C. and 31° C. had the largest effect and increased t-PAsite-occupancy gradually up to 6%. 0.75 mM butyrate increased the Type Icontent slightly (about 1%) compared to no butyrate (FIG. 6). Incontrast, a further increase of the butyrate concentration (1.5 mM)lowered site-occupancy at 37° C. and 33° C., but increased it at 31° C.(FIG. 6).

FIG. 7 shows the effect of temperature and butyrate on t-PAsite-occupancy in 5-liter bioreactors. The Type I content was analyzedon days 5-7. Decreasing temperature from 37° C. to 33° C. increased t-PAsite occupancy. However, increasing the butyrate concentration from 0.75to 1.5 mM decreased the Type I content at both temperatures. Thisconfirms the data obtained in 60-mm plate experiments (see FIG. 6).

EXAMPLE3 Cell-cycle Inhibitor Addition in the Production of rht-PA

Introduction

Temperature reduction, culture length, and butyrate addition were foundto increase the glycosylation of t-PA at the Asn-184 site, as noted inExamples 1 and 2. All of these factors correspond with decreased cellgrowth rate, leading to the hypothesis that glycosylation andsite-occupancy are cell-cycle dependent. This hypothesis was tested byperforming two additional experiments reflected in this example usingcell-cycle inhibitors (quinidine and thymidine).

Materials and Methods

Cells were cultured as for the sodium butyrate experiment described inExample 2. Thymidine was dissolved in water and sterile filtered for a33-36× stock solution. Quinidine was made up in dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) and filtered to make a 1000-1800× stock. Thymidine and quinidinewere added to the cultures at the time of inoculation to finalconcentrations of 250 μg/mL and 90 μM, respectively. T-PA site-occupancywas analyzed using the method of Example 1.

Results

The cell cycle analysis for the control, the quinidine, and thethymidine is shown in Table 2, as determined by model F_AN1_T3.MOD.

TABLE 2 Cell-Cycle Analysis Analysis Cell Cycle Control QuinidineThymidine G0/G1 53.91% at 84.70 67.34% at 84.65 32.58% at 84.60 G2-M11.72% at 165.58 8.55% at 165.45 10.09% at 165.36 S 34.37% 24.11% 57.33%G2/G1 1.95 1.95 1.95 % CV 1.97 1.79 1.99

FIG. 8 shows that site occupancy and cell-cycle position vary similarlyover time in a culture. FIG. 9 shows that quinidine blocks the cells inthe G1/G1 phase (with 67% in the G0/G1 phase) and results in increasedsite occupancy as compared to the control with no cell-cycle inhibitor(54% in the G1/G1 phase), and thymidine causes the cells to accumulatein the S/G2 phases (with 33% in the G0/G1 phase) and results indecreased site occupancy as compared to the control. These resultsconfirmed that factors that increase the proportion of cells in theG0/G1 phase increase site occupancy.

EXAMPLE 4 Divalent Metal Cation, Nucleotide Sugar Precursor, and HormoneAddition in the Production of rht-PA

Materials and Methods

All experiments were done in 60-mm culture dishes using the proceduredescribed in Example 1 except that a Mn salt, Fe salt, nucleotide sugarprecursor, or hormone was added to the growth medium during the growthphase, with Mn or Fe salt or nucleotide sugar precursor added on day 1.All plates were inoculated at a seeding density of 0.1% PCV and aworking volume of 6-8 ml. All cases were done in triplicates. Plateswere incubated at 37° C. in CO₂ incubators.

The amounts of MnCl₂ or ferric citrate in the growth medium during thegrowth phase were increased. For MnCl₂ 3 nM was the control, withincreasing amounts of MnCl₂ at concentrations of 10 nM, 100 nM, 1 μM, 10μM, and 100 μM. For ferric citrate, the control was no salt, withincreasing amounts at 10, 50, and 100 μM. The amounts of uridine,adenosine, and guanosine were 0.5 mM each and the amount of mannose was5 g/l (guanosine and mannose were combined), and -GHT is selectivemedium minus glycine, hypoxanthine and thymidine.

The amounts of tri-iodothyronine and thyroxine employed in the culturemedium were increased relative to a control with no hormone, withamounts of 1 nM, 10 nM, or 100 nM tri-iodothyronine, or 1 nM, 10 nM, or100 nM thyroxine.

T-PA site-occupancy was analyzed on days 4-6 (manganese, iron, ornucleotide sugar precursor experiment) or on day 7 (hormones) using themethod described in Example 1.

Results

The effect of increasing manganese concentration on t-PA site-occupancy(triplicate runs) is shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B. Supplementing themedium with additional manganese over the 3 nM control valuesignificantly increased the t-PA Type I content (improvedsite-occupancy) about 2.5%. A positive titration effect was observedbetween 3 nM and 100 nM. No further improvement occurred when increasingthe concentration up to 100 μM, which is still an effectiveconcentration.

Oligosaccharyltransferase requires Mn²⁺ ions for maximal activity, butother divalent metal cations with an octahedral coordination geometry,including Mg, Ca, and Fe, will support transfer, albeit at reduced rates(Hendrickson and Imperiali, suprs, and Kaufman et al., supra). Hence,the effect of Fe²⁺ on t-PA site-occupancy was investigated. As isevident from FIG. 11, the addition of 10-100 μM Fe²⁺ (ferric citrate)increased t-PA site occupancy gradually up to about 4%.

Increasing the availability of nucleotide sugar precursors (e.g.,nucleosides, mannose, glycine, thymidine, or hypoxanthine) did notimprove site-occupancy. Moreover, the addition of uridine and guanosinedecreased t-PA site-occupancy about 2% (see FIG. 12).

The effect of thyroid hormones (thyroxine and tri-iodothyronine) on t-PAsite-occupancy is shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B. These hormones increasedsite-occupancy about 2%, and it is expected that other plasma componentsas defined above would similarly have such an effect.

In conclusion, several culture conditions that affect t-PAN-glycosylation site-occupancy have been identified. These factors arepotentially useful to further improve product consistency. T-PA siteoccupancy at Asn-184 is relatively consistent across a variety ofconditions, including a variety of scales (T-flask, spinner, 80-liter,400-liter, 2000-liter, and 12,000-liter), and from run to run inproduction. Factors that increase the proportion of cells in the G0/G1phase, such as temperature, butyrate, and cell-cycle inhibitors,increase site occupancy, as do increased amounts of certain divalentmetal cations and/or plasma components preferably present during thewhole cultivation time.

The entire disclosures of all citations cited throughout thespecification, and the references cited therein, are hereby expresslyincorporated by reference.

Although the foregoing refers to particular preferred embodiments, itwill be understood that the present invention is not so limited. It willoccur to those ordinarily skilled in the art that various modificationsmay be made without diverting from the overall concept of the invention.All such modifications are intended to be within the scope of thepresent invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A process for producing a human glycoproteinhaving multiple glycoforms, comprising culturing Chinese hamster ovarycells expressing nucleic acid encoding said glycoprotein in a serum-freemedium in a production phase at a temperature of about 30° C. to 35° C.and in the presence of about 0 to 2 mM of a butyrate salt, wherein theprocess produces an increased percentage of glycoprotein moleculeshaving one glycoform relative to an identical process performed at 37°C. in the absence of butyrate.